The peaceful side of V2

Press, 6 December 1989, Page 23

The peaceful side of V2

The dreaded V2 rocket which Hitler hoped would bring the Allies to their knees after D-Day was designed partly for peaceful, scientific research. Records of interrogations of German rocket experts, found among the Imperial War Museum’s files at Duxford in the English Midlands, show that the radio-controlled rocket was originally planned for exploration of the upper atmosphere. One of the “fathers” of the V2 was Professor Erich Regener, an eminent meteorologist who had been researching the ozone layer until he was sacked from his post at Stuttgart University because his wife was Jewish.

With the war’s approach, Regener found himself courted by

the German High Command and given a special island laboratory on Lake Constance, where his wife was allowed to accompany him.

When he sought permission to switch from his high-altitude balloons to the new rockets, which had incorporated some of his findings on the effect of high temperatures and ultra-violet rays on hull technology, he was refused. The war situation had become critical and priority could no longer be given to the rocket’s research role. Werner von Braun, a rocket expert, told his interrogators: “As the war situation grew critical, the necessary priority to continue such long-range research work could no longer be ob-

tained. As a result, actual launchings of the missile for the purpose of gathering upper air data were never made.”

A Meteorological Office intelligence team combed Germany in 1945 for evidence of the background research on the V2. It said of Regener’s role: “He made intricate high soundings and observations and gave counsel regarding the distribution of temperature, humidity, ozone, ionization and chemical constitution of the upper atmosphere, which were utilised in preparing the meteorological assumptions in trajectory calculations of V2.”

Here can be found the beginnings of ozone research. Copyright London Observer